Good-Bye To Our First House

And just like that, we are no longer owners of our home and are now renters.  Let me tell you how we got to this point…

The Deciding Point

In January, Aaron and I were contemplating if it was the right time to upgrade to more space.  We love our cozy first house but it was obvious we were running out of space and I’m not even someone who collects clutter.

We went to quite a few open houses to get a feel for what we liked/didn’t like as we really didn’t have an exact idea of what we were even looking for.  Quickly, it was realized our budget needed to be up’d to get what we wanted; it’s amazing how many homes are outdated so we up’d our budget and narrowed our search to new builts.  After walking thru many 2-stories and ranches, we really loved the feel of a ranch.  We currently live in a split-level but it’s basically just a ‘raised’ ranch and I do like having everything on one level.  We also loved how much space the ranch basements have over the 2 stories.  We then started narrowing our search to ranches specifically.  This dragged on for months. 

Meanwhile, Back At the Ranch…

During this time, I started to notice how unsafe our current house was becoming for a toddler.  We have large windows in our living room that start at about 6 inches off the floor and span the height of the wall, which I’ve always loved because they bring in some amazing natural light but they are so low, Annie has a tendency to run full speed right into them and it scares me to death at the thought of her flying thru a window and falling a ½ a story down.  Not only that, but we can’t open those windows like we use to because having just the screen is even more dangerous. 

Another danger I just can’t really baby proof is the ledge over our stairs that overlook our entry way.  Annie likes to climb on the couch and then tries to climb up on that ledge at times.  Terrifying to think of her falling over the top of those and again, basically down a ½ story flight of stairs.  Our living room isn’t big enough to really better shuffle our furniture around to prevent this, regardless, some piece of furniture will be on that wall in which she can climb up there.  Totally unsafe.

Our deck is a very nice 400 square feet 2 level deck.  The 2 steps down to the lower part of the deck is just a nuisance!  The 2 steps span 20 feet across the entire deck so I can’t really baby proof it.  Annie has actually gotten better about not flying off those 2 stairs but she still does on occasion.  One of our requirements when looking for a new house is to have a flat lot so we don’t even have to have a deck, a patio is a must have!   Our deck looks terrible constantly; the work needed to maintain our cherry red deck has been a nightmare.

Another downfall to our current house is all the bedrooms are clustered in the back of the house.  Charley is notorious for making a bunch of racket in the middle of the night, which wakes up Annie.  Or just us even getting ready for bed sometimes wakes her up, we need more separation between the bedrooms in the house.  In the house we will be moving to, the kid’s rooms are on the opposite side of the house as the Master will be on.  There are downfalls to having them spaced that far apart but in my opinion there are more pros than cons.

The Unfindable Perfect House

In late April, we were tired of searching for our house over the last 4 months, it just wasn’t out there.  Everything we walked thru that was almost perfect there would have one thing about it that would make it a deal breaker for us.  The house for us that was nearly perfect we got to talking to the home builder and thought what the heck, let’s build!  We aren’t in any hurry to move, we have the time to do it and we will get all those design aspects that we want.  So we signed the papers, picked a lot out in Waukee (which is about 10 minutes west from where we are now) and started the process!

Showings, Showings, and More Showings!

Once the framing started to go up, we decided it’s time to sell our current house.  Lots of decluttering and moving stuff to a storage unit was necessary.  We made a few home improvements but mostly just did a lot of staging with our current furniture.  We put it on the market and had a full week of showings.  What a pain to try to keep a house spick and span, put Charley in daycare every day and a lot of eating out in the evenings since we couldn’t be home during the showings.  We even got kicked off of a restaurant patio for having our dog with us.  Finally on the following Sunday, we got 2 offers in!  One of the offers was more enticing as they would let us stay in our house until ours would be ready, so essentially letting us stay the extra month that we needed.  I liked the idea of not having to move twice but we countered both and luckily the renter option was the accepted offer. 

After a bit of a stressful inspection with some additional negotiating, we finally closed on our house this Friday.  I couldn’t be happier about being homeless right now (well… renters)!   And now for all the packing; trying to pack with a clingy toddler is practically impossible.  Aaron and I have been trading off weekends taking her back to the Grandparent’s so that one of us can stay behind and pack.  It has been an efficient solution and actually kinda nice to wake up to a quiet house and eat my breakfast without little hands all over my plate. 

Bittersweet Ending

I do love my current house and it’s filled of great memories.  It was our first house, we moved into it just a week prior to our wedding.  We’ve had lots of dinner parties and good times here.  We did a bathroom and laundry room renovation that made us realize we never ever want a fixer upper.  We brought our fur baby home here.   We crafted a beautiful nursery here to bring our baby girl home to.  We watched Annie take her first steps here and giggle thru the halls.  As happy as we are to be moving on, it’s still a bittersweet moment.  

I’ll fill you in on the new house, for right now we are just focusing on one step at a time.  It’s been a process, starting this in January and 10 months later we should finally be in our new home!   Wish us luck in the moving process!  

Our First House...

My Skin Care Regimen Review

I thought I would take a moment and share my skin care regimen with you (hyper-linked for your convenience).  I don’t know about you, but I am always very interested in what other people use and like.  I’ve always been a gal that is really into her products for as long as I can remember!

 

I’ve always been a firm believer in washing my face in the morning and at night and using a good face cream, I rarely have skipped that daily routine in my past 20 years.  On the other hand, I’ve not always been good about anti-aging care and using sunscreen but this year I started slathering on the sunscreen more than ever before.   If you noticed, in my last post about Lush products, I didn’t review a lot of face care products because I’m very picky as to what I use on my face.

 

In my teens and 20s, I was kind of all over the place and not very committed to one face wash or cream.  I would use one for a year or so then switch.  I’ve always loved Neutrogena products and still use Neutrogena face wash several times a week.   6ish years ago, we got an Ulta here in Des Moines, for a product-lover like myself; this sure is a dreamy store!  I have spent countless hours browsing and it’s where I really started upping my game in my skin care regimen.  I actually was on a search for a neck cream.  I was starting to get the infamous leathered chest look from tanning too much that Aaron absolutely despises.  He was the one that named it the ‘leathery chest’ look, not me.   I was just starting to barely get one and was a little paranoid so I explained to an Ulta employee that I need the BEST chest cream they have because this was my first signs of aging I’ve ever had.   She took me over to the Exuviance products, which was a total life changing moment.

   

The Exuviance toning neck cream did the trick!  I was really impressed how the fine lines just went away and my skin brighter and healthier as well as how quickly it worked.  I immediately went back to Ulta to buy more Exuviance products.

 

Wanting to keep it simple, the next product I checked out was their basic daily face cream, which was the Sheer Refining Day Fluid.  Again, I really liked it.  It seemed to really hydrate my skin and yet was lightweight and matched well with my make-up.   It was never greasy nor made my skin breakout, although it wasn’t designed specifically for anti-aging, did it have everything I was looking for in a basic face cream.  I don’t use it daily anymore but do use it on occasion, more so after or before a workout.

The reason I don’t use the Sheer Refining Day Fluid anymore is because I started to try their Anti-Aging products and really loved them better.   I’ve been using the Anti-Reverse Day Repair in the morning and the Anti-Reverse Night Lift in the evening.   Highly recommend them!

The most impressive product of all that I have tried is their eye cream.   I was definitely starting to get a lot of fine lines in the corner of my eyes and decided to try the eye cream.  I kept very close tabs on the progress and was astonished by how this eye cream cleared up those lines!   Great, great product! 

I have tried other Exuviance products, I’ve liked all of them I’ve tried and there are many more I haven’t even tried yet.   The Dermatologists that created these products really did a phenomenal job.

Now, switching gears…. A few months ago I was invited to a Rodan+Fields party.  My friend who invited me had been raving about how much she loves their products on Facebook and I’ve always thought she has awesome skin and is a few years older than me.  When she invited me to the party (and enticed me with wine) I was definitely a sucker for it. I knew little about the products other than they were created by the same dermatologists that created Pro-Active.

All their products were a little overwhelming for me as I wanted to try all of them and was very curious.  I started out with the Redefine kit.  What I really liked about Exuviance is that it didn’t ever seem expensive to me because I just bought each product individually when I needed it.   You can do that too with Rodan+Fields but they emphasized, like all products do, that you really need to use the kits to see the full benefits and so given that I wanted to give this a good shot, I bought the $200 kit.   I’ve been using it for a few months and here’s what I think…

The products smell amazing, very spa like!  I love how the cleaner does a great job of cleaning my face and has gentle exfoliating beads and acts as a daily mask.  The toner helps my skin feel extra clean and I don’t generally use a toner but now definitely will be part of my daily routine no matter what skin care products I’m using.  The morning and night cream, well they are just okay.  They pair well with my make-up and seem to be just as good as Exuviance.   Overall I think it is a really good product and if I wasn’t already using a very comparable product, I would probably be blown away by it.  I have heard a lot of raves about the eye cream, it was sold out during the party (and still is) so I do plan on trying that product.  What I love most about the product over Exuivance is the smell.  And I’ll probably still continue to use the face wash, it really is a favorite of mine; but as for buying another full kit when I run out… I probably will not.  I have nothing bad to say about it and I’m seeing the popularity of this brand grow more and more so I know people really love it. 

One thing I’m still stumped on is that at the Rodan+Fields party, they stressed that the kit should last 60 days and if it is lasting longer than 60 days, then I’m likely not using enough of the product to see the right results.  My Exuivance lasts normally 5-6 months, replenishing more frequently sounded expensive to me.  I’m at 90 days on my R+F kit and I still have plenty to use and I’m not being ‘chinsey’ in my applications, in fact I’ve been more subconscious now to use a generous amount each time.  I think replenishing every 120 days is probably a more accurate statement in my opinion.  This girl at the party (who seemed a little coo-coo or maybe had too much wine) tried to tell me she has a huge face and likely would go thru it that often.  Um… her face looked normal-sized to me.  #Weird.

Being a Financial Consultant for a living, I need to talk how much because good skin care gets expensive!  Given that I can get my Exuiviance products for 20% off when I stock up during coupon time that brings the total to $239 for the wash/toner/creams(face, night, eye).  Rodan+Fields Redefine Kit + Night Cream totals $253.  Comparable products, comparable prices, really!

If you aren’t invested in a really good skincare product, you really need to be!  I’m a total product freak so it’s easy for me to say.  Whenever I travel anywhere, I always have a separate bag of just product that is like the size of a small carry-on (and this is excluding my make-up).  Imagine me in the TSA line trying to use a small zip lock baggie to cram as many of my products in as I can, it’s ludicrous! 

Lush Product Review

Earlier this year, Des Moines got a Lush Cosmetics store here in Des Moines.  I was somewhat familiar with this store, as I would walk right past one in Chicago every year and it was a store front that would catch my eye.  I was intrigued but from the outside looking in, it just appeared to be a soap store and given soap shopping wasn’t high on my list of dos while in the big city, I always kept walking right on by.  To my surprise, it’s totally not just a soap store!  They actually have really cool cosmetics that are unique and different and I’ve been enjoying trying out their products, here are some of my latest (unbiased) reviews on what I’ve tried so far, I’ve hyperlinked the names for your convenience.

No Drought Dry Shampoo                                                                                                                      I know I’ve talked about this product before on my blog, but this is my favorite Lush product by far! This dry shampoo is unlike any I’ve ever tried as it’s a powder formula, not an aerosol and I think that in itself is what makes this dry shampoo better than others.  It really absorbs the oils and leaves my hair feeling very clean and fresh.  It even adds a bit of volume without too much of that grimy, gritty feeling some dry shampoos can leave behind.  The only downfall is the application isn’t well thought out.  The only thing I can think of that may make the application of the powder better would be to transfer it to a salt or pepper shaker.  I haven’t tried that yet but am planning to give it a whirl.  It’s a bit challenging to evenly distribute it in my hair.  I usually start around my roots by shaking it in.  Then I take my hair brush and literally scrub it in back and forth.  Then I apply some directly onto my hair brush and pull it root to end.  I use a lot in one application but would suggest only buying the smallest size of this product.  It really goes a long, long way, even given how much I use per day.  Lately, I’ve been going 3 days between washes, and this stuff is the reason why I can get away with that.  Love it!  Best. Stuff. Ever!

BIG Shampoo

This was the second product I ever tried from Lush and again, love it!  It’s a shampoo made from sea salt and lime juice and it smells ah-mazing!  It really lathers well too, you’ll feel like you are in a shampoo commercial.  This product boasts about giving hair lots of volume and I must say, it really does!  I was very impressed as I’ve tried many of volumizing shampoos just to feel dissatisfied.  It also cleans my hair amazingly, like squeaky clean.  If you are looking to extend between shampoos, this one will accomplish that for sure.  I’m skeptical of the ingredients though… it specifically says on the bottle that the sea salt will not dry out your hair and it specifically says it does not strip away natural oils but with the way it makes my hair so clean and what I’ve read about sea salt, I’m just not so sure I believe it.  I actually get a professional smoothing treatment done every 6 months and I’m not supposed to be using anything with sea salt as it ruins the treatment I get.  I use this product more so for special occasions, I really love it and want to use it all the time but I’m just not so sure about the ingredients and the long term effects it could have on my hair. 

Blousey Shampoo

One thing you should know about Lush is that they will give you a free sample of any product that you can take home for FREE and try.  Score!  The samples I find generally get you 2 applications, which is nice to give you an idea if you like it or not.  I sampled Blousey as it was recommended to me by a Lush employee.  This shampoo is very interesting.  It has zero lather.  In fact, it kinda feels as if I’m putting lotion in my hair and not shampoo.  I really thought I wouldn’t like it but when I blow dried my hair I was impressed with the fact that I had more volume than I was expecting and it left my hair feeling very clean but not that over the top squeaky clean feeling.  This product is mostly made up of mashed up bananas, strange stuff but somehow it’s a winner!  I’d recommend it. 

Daddy-O Shampoo

I’m a dark blonde.  Not really loving my color lately but I don’t want to go back to being too blonde and have all the extra maintenance but feel like I still need highlights to keep me from looking dull.  The problem is being the dark blonde color I have, as the highlights wear, I start to look brassy.  And I really don’t like that either.  Daddy-O is a purple shampoo meant to reverse the effects of brassy color for bottle blondes.  This product may be my least favorite Lush product.  I was really hoping for a home run and I think it’s a dud.  It’s a mediocre shampoo that I don’t think did anything helpful for my highlights.  Unfortunately I do not recommend buying this one.  It does no harm but personally did not find that it really worked.

Veganese Conditioner

 I don’t know what to think about this stuff.  At first I matched it with the Daddy-O and was not impressed with either.  Then I matched it with the Blousey and thought it paired well with it.  Then I decided to try it completely on its own so I wouldn’t have the bias of the other Lush shampoos and at that point in time, I just still couldn’t make up my mind.  Given that, I would just say it’s okay.  I’m really not a fan of the smell of it.  I can’t quite pinpoint why I don’t care for the smell but I just don’t.   My hunch is telling me I wouldn’t recommend this conditioner given its likely mediocrity.  The reason I bought it is because of its light weight conditioning description, it is very light weight so I would say that is a true statement for the product.

Roots, Hair Treatment

This stuff is interesting.  It’s a 15 minute treatment you use before shampooing to help add shine and volume.  At first I paired it with Blousey and loved it.  Then I did the unbiased approach and used it on its own, again I liked it but not as much as when I used it with Blousey.  I liked the smell and the way it did coat my hair but the verdict is out on this one.  The potential pro about this product is I feel like you can maybe skip the conditioner when using this first, although I tried this as a sample so I haven’t used it enough to know for sure. 

Ocean Salt, Body Salt Scrub

I bought this intending to use on my face and it’s composed of sea salt and vodka.  At first use, I thought it was way to abrasive for my face, the salts felt rougher than a normal exfoliating product.  The second time I used it (on my face again), I liked it more.  I don’t use it daily, more like for a weekly or bi-weekly exfoliation.  And it taste good too, just like a margarita, ha!  I do like this product but it did have to grow on me as at first I was little turned off by the rough texture but it does give me a little glow and a very clean feeling.  Again, I’m careful about this one and the usage, using sea salt on my face may not be a good idea in the long run for stripping natural oils your skin needs.

Ayesha, Fresh Food Face Mask (not sure if still an available product)

This stuff is interesting.  It requires refrigeration as it’s made from fresh kiwi and asparagus.  The first time I used it, it was really refreshing as it’s obviously a cool mask.  It felt a little weird on as I’m use to using masks that tighten the skin where this one I didn’t get that tightening effect.  But when I washed it off, my face was super soft!   I like the cooling component for the summer but think this one is more ideal for the winter when my skin gets super dry. I think this mask is best to use when you don’t plan on putting make-up on, since it is so moisturizing.  I wore make-up and it didn’t necessarily feel slimey or greasy but my face definitely felt different and I liked it better when I used it on my lighter make-up days.  The only downside is, the product is only good for I think it was 2 weeks, given the fresh ingredients, it does have a very short shelf life.  But it’s pretty cheap, I think it was $6.  I would recommend this product and I do hope to try it again in the winter months.

Curious But Haven’t Tried…

Anyone ever tried Lush’s shampoo bars?  It’s a very interesting concept to me.  I shampoo bar that looks just like a soap bar but it’s really shampoo.  I’m going to try one but haven’t decided which one yet!

They also have a men’s skincare line.  I am married to a man that does put on my grocery list from time to time “night face cream” or “face cream for fine lines.”  Aaron can be a total ‘girl’ when it comes to face creams.  I love him for it though.  I haven’t yet tapped into the Men’s Lush line but would like to get Aaron to try some and see what he thinks.   

SLS’s.. Why do you have to go and ruin a good thing, Lush… WHY?!

One thing that I really dislike is just about every product has sodium laureth sulfate (SLS) in them, which long story short its basically a detergent.  It s what make their products feel super clean but SLS’s do have a bad rap.  When I started to look at Lush products I noticed sulfate in their list of ingredients right away and it’s made me leery to even try them.  Although most shampoos do have sulfates in them, I had been making a conscious effort the last several years to buy sulfate-free shampoos.  I would be a 100% user of Lush if they would take that ingredient out of their products but not sure how soon that will be, in fact when I Googled ‘sodium laureth sulfate Lush’ it took me right back to their website and found it interesting that they actually address it here in this link, the last sentence remarks how they are working to replace that ingredient… but they just not there yet:

https://www.lush.co.uk/article/dont-stress-about-sls

You can decide for yourself on your stance on SLS’s but my overall opinion is Lush I pretty awesome and I have been loving some of the products enough to make it worth sharing my reviews with you!    

A Weekend of Life Lessons {Learning the Hard Way}

Last weekend, we decided to put our house on the market (which is blog post on its own soon).  Given there was a lot to do around the house, we decided it may be best for Annie and I to visit my family back in my hometown and leave Aaron to get some things done, because frankly, trying to get anything done on the weekend and keep a tidy house with Annie there is nearly impossible.

  

This would be the first time Annie and I would be traveling without Aaron and so I needed to learn to put up the Pack N Play for Annie to sleep in.  Thursday night, I spent about an hour trying to put it up and take it down.  Who knew that darn thing could be so difficult?!  Aaron kept showing me how to do it and each time I couldn’t get it to pop into place or I could get it all broke down but one side.  I was a little concerned how it would go over the weekend trying to put it up and down myself but come to find out, that little life lesson was the least of my troubles.

  

We left Friday night near Annie’s bedtime so that she could just fall asleep in the car as it’s still disastrous traveling in the car with her, she hates car rides and usually cries all the way thru them but when we plan it around her sleep schedule, she usually falls asleep fine in the car.  As I was hoping, she fell asleep on the way there.  When we were about 30 minutes outside of town, my gas light came on.  Darn it!  Life lesson #2, pay more attention before leaving at how much gas I have left.  Aaron always fills up my tank on Sundays and given it was a Friday, I was almost empty.  I’ve become way too reliant on him filling my car up that I rarely put gas in myself so it’s something I just don’t pay much attention to.

 

I debated if I’ll make it to Fairfield or not but decided that being as late as it was and traveling with Annie, it would be really bad if I ran out of gas.  So I pulled over at the next gas station and I was hurrying as fast as I could, I didn’t want to wake Annie so I grabbed the pump, slide my credit card and stopped at $20 thinking that would do for now.   I kept peaking in on her as I was antsy for my receipt that never printed.  Annoyed now that I have no idea if I actually paid for my gas or not, I had to go into the station so I ran in quickly, found out that I choose a pump that the card reader wasn’t working (of course I did) and hurried back out back to my car.  Nothing like leaving your sleeping baby in the car all by herself, terrified a cop would pull up and arrest me for bad parenting!

Back on the road, we were set, we were only 20ish minutes outside of town and Annie was still fast asleep.  About 5 minutes of being back on the road, my car started to make this catching/pull that I could feel ever so slightly.  I thought, hmmm that’s strange.  And then as we get closer, it kept happening more frequently and I knew something wasn’t right.  As we are only miles outside of town, my car completely lost power and I am barely moving on the highway.  I pull off to the shoulder, with my foot all the way on the gas, going about 10 miles per hour.  I barely make it to my Grandparent’s place and my Grandpa is standing outside waiting for me.  I get out of the car and tell him something is seriously wrong with my car and that I think I put bad gas in it.

 

I hurry, grab the Pack N Play, get it set up with little issues, get Annie transferred then grab my gas receipt and called the gas station to ask what kind of gas is the $2.59/gal.  Clerk’s response: DIESEL.   My response: OH S@$T!  Yes folks, I put $20 worth of diesel in my VW Tiguan.  It’s getting late, there is nothing I can do about it at this point.  I call my Dad and call Aaron, there responses were practically identical “You did WHAT?!”  Yep, I sure did.

Saturday morning rolls around, I call every mechanic in Fairfield and it’s just my luck that there is not one open shop in town on the weekends.  Are you kidding me?!  Not a one.  So Grandpa and I run out to try to problem solve this situation ourselves.  We purchase a small gas can and fill it up with premium gas in hopes of diluting the diesel.  Came back and ended up with half the gas on the garage floor, half in my car’s tank.  What freaking mess trying to get it to pour right, cheap Wal-Mart gas can!  My car won’t even start.  After a good hour of problem solving in 90 degree heat with a garage that has a strong smell of gas fumes, we give up. 

After grabbing a quick lunch, I told my Grandpa that we have to figure out how to get the car seat out of my car and into theirs.  Next life lesson: installing a car seat.  Well more like life lesson on how to uninstall first.  We watched numerous YouTube videos, we called Aaron and he tried to talk us thru it on speaker phone, 30+ minutes later we got it out.  Then to install took FOREVER!  We thought we had it in right then I gave it a tug and it literally pushed completely over on its side, obviously not strapped down correctly.   Then when we decided to go with the seat belt method and during all this we messed with Annie’s straps and then had the seat’s harness straps too tight and couldn’t figure out how to loosen them.  90 degree day, no breeze, gas fumes are strong, working in a hot car.  Both my Grandpa and I were a mess!  2 hours later, we had a car seat installed.  By this point my Mom was super impatient and dying to see Annie so I wiped my face off with a cold wash cloth, hurried to get Annie ready to go, loaded up and headed out to my parents. 

Exhausted, we arrived and I was making phone calls to get my car towed.  90 minutes later, I finally had my car towed.   Too many life lessons were learned that weekend but I am beyond thankful that we made it to my hometown safely and Annie and were not stranded in the middle of the country.  As well as the fact that my car was totally fixable and actually didn’t cost me that much and we were able to drive back down Monday to get it.  Life lessons can be learned the hard way, and the hard way I certainly did learn!  In a weekend’s time, I can now set up/take down a Pack N Play (don’t laugh, that’s a big feat for me!), install a car seat and know to pay attention at the gas pump.   Good grief! 

4th of July in Kansas City

Hope everyone had a great 4^th of July!  We went to Kansas City for the weekend, as we have the past few years for the 4^th and hung out at the Country Club Plaza.  We had a pretty low key 4^th overall on the Plaza so rather than go into great detail, I’ll just hit on a few fun things we did and share some great pics I got of Annie. 

One of the highlights was doing a picnic in the park, there are a lot of great restaurants on the Plaza but we were kinda boring and ordered room service and ate at the hotel quite a bit of this trip but we did do a picnic, taking out food from Chuy’s, which was a really yummy Mexican restaurant.  The food was really good, fresh and not greasy at all.  Annie loved her cheese quesadilla and gobbled it down in-between pointing at all the dogs in the park.  She’s become quite the pointer when something catches her eye.  She also really enjoyed the big fountain in the park and in true toddler fashion, threw her sippy cup into the fountain for me to fish out.  I should have seen that coming…

Lunch in the park

Loved this fountain!

Blowing bubbles with Dad

Another highlight was just walking around the toy store Zoom on the Plaza.  What a fun toy store!  Tons of toys and has a great wide variety.  We wanted to hit the toy store upon arrival so that we could pick out a toy to keep Annie occupied at the hotel.  When it comes to toys, I’ve become particular because she doesn’t play with a lot of her toys she has now and we have limited room to be adding more to the pile at home and I prefer toys that are more developmental and will provide interest because she does seem to get bored with basic toys.  We spent literally an hour trying to see what she liked/didn’t like.  We finally decided on a toy called Stack N’ Sort because our little Annie is quite the sorter.  It was a toy that has a bunch of cups that could nest together, or turn upside down and stack over 2 feet high and it came with a bucket, perfect for her obsession with collecting items in buckets.  And it was perfect for the pool too.  It was a win/win and a hit at the hotel, probably the best decision we made during the entire trip!

Another highlight was the time spent at the pool.  We stayed on the InterContinental.  This hotel has an awesome pool scene.  Live music, a pool bar, it’s always packed and lively and the best part is it has 2 separate pools, one that is only a little over a foot deep, the perfect wading pool for Annie’s size.  And my word, she loved it!  Giggles and smiles galore, I got tons of great pictures of her at the pool.  I didn’t get any pictures at the 2^nd day at the pool but she had a blast both days. 

See what I mean?  Perfect Annie size pool!  This entire pool is this deep, never gets deeper. 

Ready for the pool Mom! 

We debated on whether we would watch fireworks or not.  We decided it wasn’t worth the fight of keeping Annie up and since there are no fireworks on the Plaza, we would have to load up and drive to go see them, we do have the perfect spot in KC to watch fireworks, it’s at the Liberty Memorial, there are no fireworks at this location but it’s a high point in the city and you can literally watch 10+ displays going on at the same time, we stumbled upon it a few years ago and it’s basically the only reason we go to KC specifically on the 4^th now.  I really missed that we couldn’t get to do that this year.  We ended up just watching the New York ones on TV and falling asleep at the hotel before KC fireworks would have even kicked off. 

Wish I wasn't waving at the camera, darn could have been a great picture! 

Pointing at something interesting I'm sure

Checking things out 

We did a little shopping but not a ton, I got my Potbelly’s milkshake on both days (mmmm!) and hung out at the hotel quite a bit; it was a low key trip overall, next year hopefully we can see some fireworks but I’m sure of one thing, Annie really enjoyed her little vacation! 

Annie is 15 Months Old

Annie is 15 months old and good gravy is she something; she is so full of spunk, joy and certainly keeps us on our toes.

She isn’t saying a lot of words yet but does know some baby sign language.  She can say ‘Mama’ clear as day.  We know she knows how to say ‘Dada’ but isn’t saying it quite as much right now.   When you ask her what a dog or Charley says, she replies with the cutest ‘Woof, Woof.’  And when she reads a book with a dog in it, she points and instantly goes ‘Woof, Woof.’  When you ask her a question, you can usually get a yes or no nod of the head, which has made my life a little easier when asking if she is ready to get out of the bath or is hungry.  When you ask her where her belly button is, she lifts her shirt up and points right to it, we find these little things pretty comical.  Aaron likes to trick her when she is wearing her swimsuit and ask where her belly button is and then she can't figure out why she can't find it in her one-piece.  I think that is borderline mean {as I laugh at her struggling to find it}. 

She’s not really into any toys right now.  In fact, she hardly plays with her toys, what she is into is books and Legos.  In particularly picture/word books and books with flaps to open.  I usually just sit a pile of books in front of her and she can entertain herself pretty easily but mostly really loves to be read to.  She definitely has a few favorite books which do get a little old by the 20^th time thru in a row.

She has teeth galore coming in, which has made for some challenging teething days.  She pretty much has half of her teeth now and I’m looking forward to just having them all in.  It’s funny, sometimes a new tooth doesn’t even phase her while others pretty much make for an entirely miserable day {and night}.   Some of her friends at daycare have given up the paci, we think it really helps with soothing thru this teething process so for now I think we will hang on to the paci until teething is over.

I wish I could report that Annie has become less clingy but it’s actually gotten worst.  She constantly wants to be held by me or needs me nearby.  If I leave the room she starts screaming, running after me.  I can barely catch a bathroom break!  Recently I was cooking in the kitchen, my hands were a mess and she was hysterical, with a total death grip around my leg, I had to literally drag my leg with her on it across the kitchen so I could clean my hands and pick her up.  It’s gotten that bad lately!  I love her wanting me and I do enjoy holding her but it’s becoming too constant that we really need to get to a happy-medium soon!   My chiropractor visits are becoming too frequent from carrying her around everywhere!

I’m always amazed at how well Annie excels at Daycare.  The other day I picked her up mid-day and was spying on her before she saw me.  She was eating lunch and I couldn’t believe it, using a fork to eat and she was doing it so gracefully and so focused.  I was like when did my child start using utencils?!  She learns way more at Daycare than she does from Aaron and I.  Daycare has been great parenting for us too.  They help prompt us when she is ready for a change.  She hasn’t been on bottles for months now and sleeps on a cot at daycare, no more cribs for day naps.  She is also very influenced by her little toddler friends, she sees them all doing it so she wants to do it too.  She is a way better eater at daycare then she is for us at home, again we think it’s because her toddler friends are more influential than we are when it comes to eating.  Dropping her off and going to work is easy when we know she is in good hands during the day.

Asleep in the cart, who knew that could be comfortable? 

Lately, we’ve noticed something Annie has been doing.  Sorting.  One day I was watching her take her 3 Leggo sets that are all in one tub and sort them between tubs.  I was kinda shocked that she knew how to sort them so well.  It was a proud and terrified moment for me because I think she has OCD like me!   I didn't mention it at first and then Daycare mentioned one day when I walked in during one of her sorting moments.  I watched her as she walked around sorting like items and they said she does it all the time and is very meticulous about putting like-items in tubs.  Since, we’ve noticed that she does it pretty often.  She watches me sort her toys but I’ve never sorted her Leggos before so that tells me OCD is definitely a hereditary thing!  It’s like I’m proud when I see it and think this girl is going to have amazing organizational skills but terrified because I know how life consuming OCD can be.  Oh Annie!

Annie has also started to learn how to give us kisses on the cheek when asked.  Her wet sloppy kisses are the best. She even makes the 'smacking' noise when she goes in for a kiss.  They usually are wide open mouthed kisses, which is quite comical when she comes at you with her mouth wide open, going “muah!”, she even pulls back kinda fast, which is funny because she is totally mimicking how we kiss her (minus the wide open mouth thing, not sure where she got that from!)   She loves to wave bye-bye, blow kisses and give hugs too.  The running hugs with huge smile on her face might be my favorite.  Aaron and I keep saying that this is one of our favorite ages so far! 

This video pretty much sums it up.  Life is oh so joy-filled with Miss Annie!

Omaha Zoo 2015

Our first trip of 2015 was a success and a lot of fun!  My parents had wanted to take my nephew Eli and Annie to the Omaha zoo and earlier this month we were able to do so.  It worked out really well because my sister, Heather and her boyfriend Andrew were able to meet us from Colorado so not only did we all go to the zoo but it was a perfect get-together as we haven’t done a family vacation with my parents and siblings in years!   On Friday night we drove over and met up with my parents, my brother Cody and his son Elijah.  Mom and I enjoyed sitting the hotel lobby that afternoon drinking wine while Eli and Annie ran around.  It’s cute how Annie kept a watchful eye on what Eli was up to and how Eli kept a watchful but almost like ‘big brother-like’ eye on his little cousin Annie.  It’s the cutest to see them play together or when Eli reaches over and gives Annie a gentle hug.  Annie is pretty clingy to me but with Eli, she lets him come near her and loves his hugs and jumps right in to play.

While hanging out in the lobby, Heather and Andrew showed up, their flight was right on time which was great because we still had the whole evening yet.  We all grabbed dinner at a nearby restaurant and then hurried down the pool to get some swim time in before Annie’s bedtime.  Which we ended up letting her stay up later than normal, not sure if that was a good idea or not but it didn’t completely backfire on us.  It was the first time Annie was in a big pool and she was more intrigued in watching Eli jumping off the side of the pool.  

The next day we got to the zoo early, it started off to be a rainy morning but cleared up pretty quickly and really didn’t end up ruining our day at all.  Annie really loved the petting zoo, I think she could have petted the baby goat kids all day long.   She also loved the artic penguins and the train ride around the park.  We had a little trouble getting her to finally nap in the stroller but when she finally did, she was out for 3 solid hours.  Which we knew it was super important that she caught her nap but a bummer that she missed out on 3 hours of zoo time.  By the end of the day, we had walked 6 miles and seen just about everything there was to see except the Jungle, which at that point we decided we didn’t have it in us to walk thru that exhibit so we hit the souvenir shop and headed back to the hotel.

Speaking of the souvenir shop, I was really surprised, the prices were really good and not a total rip off like I was expecting.  Mom ended up getting Annie 2 animal books and a Lego set, all for $20!  And she loves it and plays/reads with them all the time.  

Back at the hotel, we ended up all ordering dinner in and spending our last evening together with some more pool time.  All in all, Annie really loved this trip to the zoo and we will definitely be hitting up the local zoo here in Des Moines this summer.  First trip of the year was a success and it was nice to get out of Des Moines, spend time with family and do something different for a change.